CHAPTER 2

       The 7-Step Model: Core Elements of a Successful Environmental Training Program

      Remember, in the end, nobody wins unless everyone wins.

      Bruce Springsteen

      Effective environmental management programs comprise a number of elements that support each other. Training is only one of them.

      This section groups the elements listed in Chapter 1 into seven steps. The steps aren’t necessarily sequential, but they do need to be mutually reinforcing, as Figure 3 shows.

      The examples given for each step are, again, drawn from Auckland’s erosion and sediment control program to illustrate the general principles of the seven steps, but the steps apply to any environmental training program.

      In Chapter 3, I’ll give examples of other environmental programs to give you more food for thought in the worksheet and mindmap pages that follow, including:

      As you go through the Action Sheets, ask yourself what issues your organization could solve using the 7-step model.

      Figure 3 contains the key elements of the generic management cycle: research, policy, implementation and evaluation (or plan, do, check, review). Associated with these are several supporting elements that relate specifically to training, which is only one of many methods and activities that help to give effect to policy.

       Figure 3 The seven elements of an effective environmental training program

      These elements complement each other, with the results of research and technical investigations being promoted through educational initiatives in order to help trainees and their organisations meet environmental performance requirements more easily. This effort is directed towards more sustainable development that avoids and minimises adverse environmental effects and, where possible, enhances pre-existing environmental quality.

      Crucial to the success of any program, but especially any program with a training component, are a partnership approach and long-term resourcing and support. These are essential not only for training and the other individual components but for the program as a whole.

      Ideally, these elements need to be coordinated within the responsible regulatory agency and/or between related agencies if several are involved – and with the public or private sector concerned. Each one of the seven steps is best carried out in full consultation. Ideally this should occur in the context of a formal or informal partnership – with other relevant agencies and stakeholders, including national, regional and local levels of government, industry or other groups, first peoples and community groups.

      The following sections give a very brief overview of each of these elements, using the example of Auckland’s erosion and sediment control program.

	Jot down your thoughts on Action Sheet 2.1 as you go. Remember that the seven steps are not necessarily sequential, despite being numbered. You will probably end up doing many, if not all, of them at the same time, especially if you take on board the partnership approach.
	Remember, too, that these steps will broadly apply to businesses and not-for-profits as well as to government agencies like the one used as the example in this chapter.

Step 1: Partnership: the fundamental platform

      Partnership is the platform par excellence for an effective environmental training program, regardless of how strong or weak the regulatory and community focus on the issue in question.

      For example, Earl Shaver³¹ recounts the tale of the erosion and sediment control program in the state of Delaware in the USA. It lacked resources and operated in a context of inadequate legislative and regulatory authority, and there was no strong environmental lobby group to represent the community’s growing concerns about flooding and erosion. So Earl and his colleagues at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control developed a consensus-style approach to getting the necessary legislation and subsequent regulations accepted by the State legislative bodies and by the industry that was going to be regulated. They developed an education campaign highlighting the size of the problem (with slides showing the impacts) and the nature of the regulatory and training solutions.